So this weekend I loaded up and hauled all the way out to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, AZ for rounds 6 and 7 of the Arizona Lucas Oil Regional Series.
I rolled out Thursday after work and after 7hrs and one flat tire on the trailer I arrived in Chandler with just enough time to grab a few hours of sleep in the truck. When morning came around it was time to get up and get ready for practice.
I made some rounds and said hi to the great people from the Arizona regionals and some good racing friends. After a quick registration and run through tech, I took to the track to practice. A right rear wheel stud quickly let go and trashed the wheel with it, so it was back to the pits.
Huge thanks to Bryan McCormick of LiveTrackFeed.com for hooking it up with the exact parts I needed and to George Hammel and his family for helping out, there is no shortage of really good people in this off-road community. Got the hub changed out and a spare tire put on and I was good to go for qualifying.
I really like the track at WHP, it’s got a different surface than the stuff you see in So Cal. The high-banked turn 2 along with the split lane through turns 4-5 makes for fun and different racing.
A little short on practice I didn’t qualify as well as I would have liked, but it ended up working in my favor as my 4th place in qualifying paired with a 4 car inversion put me on the pole for Friday night’s main event.
Alas, even with the all the stars aligned, it was not to be. Just about the second lap of the main event I started getting a really strange intermittent shaking sensation with a little sputtering. It got worse as the race went on and I finally slowed way way down when it turned into a violent wobble that chattered my teeth and helmet visor. I putted it around for the last few laps and ended up with 4th. The shaking seemed to change every time I bottomed out or was thrown forward really hard.
I got her back to the pits but nothing was obviously visibly wrong. I was pretty much out of guesses at this point and driving it around in the pits hadn’t shed any light on the situation. As I pulled back into the pit and parked I heard something that sounded a little like an arc and I lost all electrical power. This finally gave a clue where to look, and first thing in the morning I pulled the seat to find a crushed wire that had shorted the battery. Still not exactly sure what caused the shaking (guesses welcomed) but after replacing the wire and battery everything seemed to be alright, I was ready for Saturday qualifying. Or so I thought….
As we sat in the drivers meeting on Saturday afternoon large stormclouds and a wall of dust loomed off in the west. We were assured that even if the rain did hit us and we had to cancel qualifying, the mains would still go off if at all possible. Things were looking alright as I got back to the trailer, but the wind started to pick up fast.
With almost no warning the dust storm hit, gusting wind and dirt. It had been breezy so we had the canopy tied down well (maybe too well, Im thinking the tie downs may have made it worse when it all hit the fan). My dad and I ran over and tried to hold onto it as the wind buffeted the canopy and tried to push it into the truck. The next five minutes was some of the gnarliest wind and rain I’ve ever seen out of a microburst in my life. There was lots of carnage all around and we got over three inches of rain in less than 15 minutes. An oil drain pan came flying from across the road, flipped our table and toolbox onto the ground as our chairs and Rubbermaid tubs were blown up against the trucks/fence. Long story short it was FUBAR.
The top picture was taken immediately after the drivers meeting, and the bottom picture taken less than fifteen minutes later during a brief respite from the rain (which continued on and off for the better part of an hour). Poor canopy never had a chance!
All of the extreme flooding (can you say 3ft of water in turn 3?) paired with a downed power line caused the definitive cancellation of the nights festivities. I’m bummed for everyone at Arizona Short Course who worked so hard to set up this cool event with the mud bogs/monster trucks etc. but I’m sure once they get it rescheduled it will be as awesome as it was planned.
I had lots of fun out there and the cancellation allowed me to visit some friends down at the University of Arizona so it was definitely not a wasted trip. Now its time to start getting ready for the next race which happens to be the Lucas Oil Regional So. Cal at Lake Elsinore October 11th! That will be a full weekend of racing with the Dirt Series as well.
Thank you so much to: Carr One Fabrication, Patridge Motorsports, Suspension Direct Inc. (SDI) , Walker Evans Racing, GBC Motorsports, Yoshimura, Action Sports Canopies, Super ATV, Desert Molding Concepts, EPI, Industrial Sprocket and Gear, IBEW #43, GoPro, Spy Optic, and UTVUnderground.com
Photos from the weekend
Since I was in the car for most of the UTV racing that went down it was tough to get any action shots. In addition to the photos I took I am sharing a few shots with permission from Spinning Wheels Photography who were on hand taking great pictures all weekend. Check out their full event gallery where you can see more/purchase photos here
Enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
Rob Mac's old truck I think:
Happy Bday Dan200!
Wade Wyman:
Brock Heger:
I rolled out Thursday after work and after 7hrs and one flat tire on the trailer I arrived in Chandler with just enough time to grab a few hours of sleep in the truck. When morning came around it was time to get up and get ready for practice.
I made some rounds and said hi to the great people from the Arizona regionals and some good racing friends. After a quick registration and run through tech, I took to the track to practice. A right rear wheel stud quickly let go and trashed the wheel with it, so it was back to the pits.
Huge thanks to Bryan McCormick of LiveTrackFeed.com for hooking it up with the exact parts I needed and to George Hammel and his family for helping out, there is no shortage of really good people in this off-road community. Got the hub changed out and a spare tire put on and I was good to go for qualifying.
I really like the track at WHP, it’s got a different surface than the stuff you see in So Cal. The high-banked turn 2 along with the split lane through turns 4-5 makes for fun and different racing.
A little short on practice I didn’t qualify as well as I would have liked, but it ended up working in my favor as my 4th place in qualifying paired with a 4 car inversion put me on the pole for Friday night’s main event.
Alas, even with the all the stars aligned, it was not to be. Just about the second lap of the main event I started getting a really strange intermittent shaking sensation with a little sputtering. It got worse as the race went on and I finally slowed way way down when it turned into a violent wobble that chattered my teeth and helmet visor. I putted it around for the last few laps and ended up with 4th. The shaking seemed to change every time I bottomed out or was thrown forward really hard.
I got her back to the pits but nothing was obviously visibly wrong. I was pretty much out of guesses at this point and driving it around in the pits hadn’t shed any light on the situation. As I pulled back into the pit and parked I heard something that sounded a little like an arc and I lost all electrical power. This finally gave a clue where to look, and first thing in the morning I pulled the seat to find a crushed wire that had shorted the battery. Still not exactly sure what caused the shaking (guesses welcomed) but after replacing the wire and battery everything seemed to be alright, I was ready for Saturday qualifying. Or so I thought….
As we sat in the drivers meeting on Saturday afternoon large stormclouds and a wall of dust loomed off in the west. We were assured that even if the rain did hit us and we had to cancel qualifying, the mains would still go off if at all possible. Things were looking alright as I got back to the trailer, but the wind started to pick up fast.
With almost no warning the dust storm hit, gusting wind and dirt. It had been breezy so we had the canopy tied down well (maybe too well, Im thinking the tie downs may have made it worse when it all hit the fan). My dad and I ran over and tried to hold onto it as the wind buffeted the canopy and tried to push it into the truck. The next five minutes was some of the gnarliest wind and rain I’ve ever seen out of a microburst in my life. There was lots of carnage all around and we got over three inches of rain in less than 15 minutes. An oil drain pan came flying from across the road, flipped our table and toolbox onto the ground as our chairs and Rubbermaid tubs were blown up against the trucks/fence. Long story short it was FUBAR.
The top picture was taken immediately after the drivers meeting, and the bottom picture taken less than fifteen minutes later during a brief respite from the rain (which continued on and off for the better part of an hour). Poor canopy never had a chance!
All of the extreme flooding (can you say 3ft of water in turn 3?) paired with a downed power line caused the definitive cancellation of the nights festivities. I’m bummed for everyone at Arizona Short Course who worked so hard to set up this cool event with the mud bogs/monster trucks etc. but I’m sure once they get it rescheduled it will be as awesome as it was planned.
I had lots of fun out there and the cancellation allowed me to visit some friends down at the University of Arizona so it was definitely not a wasted trip. Now its time to start getting ready for the next race which happens to be the Lucas Oil Regional So. Cal at Lake Elsinore October 11th! That will be a full weekend of racing with the Dirt Series as well.
Thank you so much to: Carr One Fabrication, Patridge Motorsports, Suspension Direct Inc. (SDI) , Walker Evans Racing, GBC Motorsports, Yoshimura, Action Sports Canopies, Super ATV, Desert Molding Concepts, EPI, Industrial Sprocket and Gear, IBEW #43, GoPro, Spy Optic, and UTVUnderground.com
Photos from the weekend
Since I was in the car for most of the UTV racing that went down it was tough to get any action shots. In addition to the photos I took I am sharing a few shots with permission from Spinning Wheels Photography who were on hand taking great pictures all weekend. Check out their full event gallery where you can see more/purchase photos here
Enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
https://www.facebook.com/SpinningWheelsPhotos
Rob Mac's old truck I think:
Happy Bday Dan200!
Wade Wyman:
Brock Heger: